Nektar Panorama T4 & T6 Review – Big Win For Nektar

The Nektar Panorama T4 and T6 are the newest MIDI keyboards from the company. The only difference between the two is one has 49 keys and the has 61. There have been a lot of keyboards released here in the last few months so I want to break down my thoughts on this keyboard.

My opinion is that I believe the Nektar Panorama T is a great MIDI keyboard. It nailed all of the features that it needed to in order to really stand out amongst the other keyboards. If you read my reviews, you will notice I was critical on a couple of the new keyboards for not having aftertouch. The Panorama T has aftertouch and I think it’s fantastic. The price is also something that a lot of people will be happy with as it’s cheaper than its predecessors. Below, I will break down exactly what I like and don’t like about this keyboard.

Nektar Panorama T

My first thoughts when playing this MIDI controller were that I was surprised at how much I liked it. I personally think this is a huge step forward for Nektar from the P series.

DAW Control

The Nektar T series has really deep DAW controls and this is a big plus for every musician. This keyboard is compatible with pretty much every major DAW, but it is best for the following DAW’s; Bitwig, Cubase, GarageBand, Logic, Nuendo, Reason, and Reaper. I haven’t used Bitwig before, but I am a big fan of Cubase and it is integrated for these DAW’s specifically.

The DAW’s I have listed are just the DAW’s it is integrated for. The Nektar T4 & T6 still work well with Ableton and other DAW’s. You have auto-mapping for any of the above DAW’s listed as this makes your life easier as you don’t have to really program anything.

Pad Functionality Of The Nektar T4 & T6

The pads are great on this keyboard. Since so many producers are using MIDI controllers to come up with beats on the pads, these are designed for just that.

The pads are quite large and they are velocity-sensitive. This means that you can have complete control when having dynamics. If you want what you’re playing to be louder, you simply player louder and vice versa.

Another thing you can do with these pads is to program them to play chords. You can easily have them play chords and you can design beats around rhythmic chord progressions.

This is a common way of doing things nowadays as it’s one more way to think outside of the box.

Display Screen

The display screen on the Nektar T is an improvement. It is LCD and it clear to the point. I like that this was very easy to navigate through my DAW on.

Nektarine VST

This VST comes with this keyboard and it is a great one indeed. It works really well with the Nektar T since it was made for it. The knobs and faders on this keyboard work extremely well with this plugin and you will have great fun with it.

Second Generation Key-bed

The key-bed is nice on this controller and it really gets the job done. It’s not weighted, but you can’t really find smaller MIDI controllers with weighted key-beds. Where it stands out is the keyboard can read five different velocities. This gives you some really good dynamic control as you can go from really quiet to really loud in a nice way.

Its predecessor was known for having a great key-bed and this is something that Nektar has improved on once again.

Key Repeat and Pad Repeat

This is an interesting feature that does exactly what you’d expect it to do. These buttons are located right above the pitch and mod wheels. The repeat function will repeat at the same rate, however, you can adjust them as well. You can use these functions to tweak chord progressions or to just tweak drum beats to your liking.

Connections

On the back of the Nektar Panorama T4 and T6 you will find a few different jacks. There’s a USB port, a sustain pedal port, expression pedal jack, MIDI output, and an on/off switch.

My Experience With MIDI Controllers

I have been playing controllers now for quite some time. I have toured in a band for about 6 years now and I have played on pretty much all of the major controllers.

Overall

I think Nektar knocked it out of the park with this controller. The one thing that I wish it had would be Bluetooth technology, however, there aren’t many Bluetooth keyboards that are made yet. I believe we will start to see more Bluetooth MIDI keyboards in the future though.

Nektar made huge improvements on the key-bed, which was already great, as well as the aftertouch. These are two things that are always to be desired in a keyboard controller.

I think this matches up and beats almost all of the current controllers on the market and I think this will become a very popular keyboard. If you want to check out my favorite 49 key MIDI controllers you can do at 49 key MIDI controllers.

Chris Senner

Hello there! My name is Chris and this is a blog where I love to review all things keyboards and music industry related. On my website, you will find in-depth reviews on the latest MIDI controllers, digital pianos, keytars, and insight into the music industry.I have been playing the piano for over 20 years and I have been experimenting with MIDI controllers for about 5 years now. I have been hooked on learning more about keyboards because I find them incredibly interesting.About 5 years ago I started touring with my band so I like to share as much insight as I can when I do all of my reviews. Because I have been able to tour, I thought it would be a fun idea to share all of my knowledge I have gained over the years in hopes of helping others.

Categories

Related Posts

The Korg Kross 61 SE is the special edition Kross 2. It is basically the same keyboard with 4 different neon color options. This was recently announced at the NAMM music conference a few days Read more…

The Korg Krome EX 88, 73, and 61 were just announced at the famous music conference, NAMM. This is the successor to the ever-popular Krome series. Since the announcement a few days ago, I have spent Read more…

Casio just announced their newest entry-level keyboard, the CDP S100. Designed to be slim and portable, yet affordable for beginners. I think this is unique in the sense that it has 88 keys, yet it Read more…

Affiliate Disclaimer

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliates sites.